Asics Stock

[Interpreted] Good afternoon. I am Hirota from ASICS. Thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedules to attend our Investment Day in person or to join us online.

First, I am pleased to announce that ASICS has been awarded the IR Grand Prix. This achievement is thanks to your ongoing advice, guidance and support. So, thank you very much. We intend to continue enhancing our IR activities and linking them to the growth of our company. We look forward to your continued support.

Now, today's main topic is Performance Running Strategy. At ASICS, Performance Running is a core business accounting for approximately half of ASICS'’ sales and profits. Mr. Moriyasu, Senior General Manager of Performance Running Footwear Division, will now provide an overview of this core business. But before I hand over the microphone to Mr. Moriyasu, I would like to respond to many of the inquiries that we have been receiving recently, and that is to do with the sales that are generated by inbound tourists.

From January to September of this year, inbound sales had accounted for JPY 32.8 billion in total. As we have shown on the right-hand side pie chart, all these tourists come from different areas of the world. And we have just confirmed last week sales. On a week-over-week basis, it was up by 3%. In other words, the trend hasn't changed very much, and it has been trending really strongly.

So, as we have said, the main topic for today's Investment Day is on Performance Running Strategy. So therefore, if you have any further questions to do with this inbound tourism sales, please do contact IR team members after the event.

Now I would like to once again explain the personnel changes involving CFO, Hayashi, which were also questioned at the previous earnings briefing. China is an extremely important market for ASICS that also serves as a production base for us. It is also a region with geopolitical risks. In this strategically vital region, we expect Hayashi to formulate and execute strategies that further enhance ASICS' brand equity and drive sustained growth. So, we ask for your continued strong support and expectations for ASICS growth in China.

Following Hayashi's reassignment, I, along with Tominaga, will oversee finance, accounting, IR and supply chain management. Please note that we will strive to further improve to -- further to improve the quality and enhance substance.

So just the other day, after the earnings call, Kobayashi had approached me. They said, do you think that I wasn't doing a very good job. Well, I said it is okay. I think everyone is really highly motivated. So, it doesn't mean to say that just because I'm going to get involved, I don't -- it doesn't mean to say that I don't trust our people.

Anyway, I would like to hand over the microphone to Moriyasu, now.

[Interpreted] Good afternoon. I'm Moriyasu from the Performance Running Footwear Division. I'm so delighted to be given this opportunity to present on the business of Performance Running Footwear.

I will cover these four points in the agenda. First, an overview of the Performance Running category business; next, our strength in product development; and third, our initiatives and current status toward achieving the #1 market share by 2025; and finally, I will discuss further growth opportunities beyond 2026.

First, the business overview of the Performance Running Footwear category. Our vision is to become the #1 premium brand in the Performance Running Footwear category. As the word "premium" implies, this vision embodies our commitment to delivering the ultimate running experience to all runners through the development of high value-added running shoes. This chart shows Performance Running's performance from 2020 through the latest forecast year of 2025.

For 2025, we project sales of JPY 368 billion and category profit of JPY 84 billion. As you can see, since 2020, we have achieved both sales growth and profit growth with significant improvements in gross margin and category profit margin.

Now this slide shows examples of initiatives we have implemented to improve profitability. The blue bar chart represents sales revenue. The stacked bar chart on the right shows the number of pairs sold, while the red bars represent the sales volume of high value-added products priced at $90 or more, which we are particularly focused on. Specifically, this includes flagship products like KAYANO and NIMBUS. But on the other hand, the gray bars represent sales volume for low-tier products priced below $90.

You can see that our focus on selling products priced at $90 or above has changed the composition of our sales volume. In addition to changes in the items sold, we have also strengthened our inventory management system. As shown by the green line graph, we have been able to shorten the days inventory outstanding, DIO, for the Performance Running category since 2020. As a result, we believe this has led to improved gross profit margins by establishing a management system for unnecessary discounts and low-margin products.

We will now explain the market we are targeting and focusing on. As shown here, the running shoe market can be broadly divided into two segments based on usage. In other words, some customers use shoes for running purposes, while others purchase them for everyday wear or casual use.

In our category, to deliver the value of running to customers along with our products, we mainly target the customers who will use the shoe for running purposes just like the photo on the left-hand side, and our goal is to win in this market. So, we will refer to this market as a Core Running market in the following explanation.

The left-hand side shows the combined market size for running shoes in Japan, the U.S. and five major European countries. According to Circana data, the running shoe market is estimated to be about JPY 1.85 trillion as of 2024. Within this market, ASICS currently holds a share of about 10%.

Recent trends in the running market are summarized on the right side of the slide. The running shoe market itself has been growing at an annual rate of about 7% over the last 2 years. While the premium market segment, we focus on, priced at $90 and above, has been growing at an annual rate of about 17% over the last 2 years. We view this as a market with a significant momentum after the COVID pandemic.

This slide shows information regarding the running population. Health and exercise awareness have significantly increased since COVID pandemic. And based on our own research, we estimate that over 1.5 billion people worldwide are currently running.

Taking India as an example, the number of road race events, which stood at just two in 2004 is set to have expanded to 1,700 events in 2024. In emerging markets like India, population growth and rising per capita GDP are anticipated, coupled with the heightened awareness of health and exercise, we expect running's popularity to grow even further.

This slide shows the trend in ASICS' market share ranking within the Core Running market with products priced at $90 or more. Our combined results of Japan, the U.S. and Europe. As of September 2025, we achieved the #1 market share for the first time in several years, indicating that our efforts are gaining customer support. We believe various initiatives have contributed to our growth to date, but we consider ASICS products evolution to be one of the major driver.

Here, we will explain what we consider to be our strength in product development. First, our product design philosophy, ASICS DESIGN PHILOSOPHY. We place importance on a human-centered science approach in our product design. For running shoes, we first listen to runners' voices, then analyze the insights gained from that perspective scientifically. We proceed to developing products from the perspectives of innovation-driven concepts and sustainability. This is the ASICS DESIGN PHILOSOPHY, our unique product design philosophy that enables us to continuously evolve superior products with reproductivity.

We believe that building processes and organizations is particularly essential for innovation. Therefore, we have established a cross-organizational collaborative framework that differs from conventional team structure on a global scale. We have established bases in Boston, Kobe and Vietnam, forming a system where each location has its own roles and responsibilities, while collaborating with one another.

In Boston, we analyze customer insights based on our feedback and develop hypothesis grounded in science to create innovative concepts and designs. While in Kobe, we develop innovative products to realize those concepts and work with members from our Vietnam based -- Vietnam-based to create prototypes.

We believe it is crucial to bring innovative products to market as quickly as possible. We advanced product development by continuously accelerating the PDCA cycle at all levels. Through this process, we reduced development lead time to 3/4 of standard time lines. The resulting product, MEGABLAST, a shoe with superior rebound performance was launched in September. About 2 months after release, it has received positive feedback from various regions. Without interrupting this momentum, we plan to continue launching innovative products that represent our vision for the future beyond 2026. So, please look forward to this.

This slide summarizes the Performance Running product lineup categorized by each silo. We have now achieved a full lineup of products for each silo within our core product groups of stability, cushion and so on and so forth.

One reason for expanding our product lineup is the concept of wearing different shoes for different purposes. This is just one example. But by wearing different shoes for different running purposes, people can enjoy diverse running experiences. We recommend the optimal product for each individual runner based on their purpose, daily runs, long-distance runs, speed training or race participation. Whether you are a beginner, a fun run enthusiastic -- enthusiast or a runner aiming for personal best, we believe we can propose the best shoes for -- propose the best shoes for each of the diverse runners.

Moreover, for our race-focused METASPEED series, we operate as an independent organization directly managed by Mr. Hirota under a special team structure called C-PROJECT. We focus particularly on performance-driven design, and we will provide a detailed explanation starting on the next page.

The C in C-PROJECT comes from the first letter of the Japanese word "Chojo" or peak in English, inspired by the phrase start by striving for the peak, Chojo, by our founder, Kihachiro Onitsuka. And the word peak or summit refers to the athlete. This special unit consistently advances innovative product development centered on what is best for athletes, while undertaking activities that maximize support for athlete performance.

Let me explain the background behind launching the C-PROJECT. The table on the left summarizes the performance of athletes wearing our shoes at international competitions prior to the project's launch. The graph on the right shows the share of ASICS and Company B shoes worn by athletes in the New Year University Ekiden race.

As shown in the left table, we failed to place in the Top 3 at the international competitions after 2012. And as seen in the right graph, our share in the New Year University Ekiden decreased year-by-year, resulting in zero wearers in 2021. We believe that the lack of success by athletes wearing ASICS' shoes at the time led to reduced exposure of ASICS and the perception of ASICS as a performance brand also began to change.

The C-PROJECT was launched to overcome and make a breakthrough to this situation, established as a direct organization under then-COO, Mr. Hirota, a cross-functional team was built to bring together high-performing members from multiple departments of the value chain. It is a structure designed to move things forward for athletes with a sense of urgency.

The METASPEED series is a product born from the C-PROJECT. Most recently, ahead of the Tokyo World Athletic Championship, we launched the METASPEED RAY, METASPEED SKY TOKYO, and METASPEED EDGE TOKYO from left to right.

We deliberately developed three distinct models to meet athletes' diverse needs. The C-PROJECT not only developed shoes for marathon and other long-distance road races, but also track spikes for track events and marathon apparel products. We provide comprehensive support to help athletes perform at their absolute best or maximum extent in major competitions like the World Athletics Championships.

Beyond products, we engage in various athlete focused activities. One such initiative is establishing Chojo Camp. We currently operate in three locations in Kenya and France. We maintain close communication with athletes while supporting the training of top athletes and the development of the next generation. These efforts paid off with many contracted athletes excelling at this year's Tokyo 2025 World Athletics Championships.

For example, Italy's athlete, Aouani, won the Bronze medal in the men's marathon. Portugal's athlete, Nader, won the Gold medal in the men's 1,500 meter. Italy's athlete, Battocletti, who won Bronze in both the women's 10,000-meter and 5,000-meter. And Japanese athlete, Ryota Kondo and Kana Kobayashi achieving the highest Japanese finishes in the marathon. These were truly memorable moments for us all.

Now, here is a summary of the Tokyo 2025 World Athletics Championships. A total of 125 athletes competed wearing ASICS' products at the Championship, winning 9 medals, including 4 Gold medals. In both the men's and women's marathons, ASICS secured a top shoe share, especially in the men's marathon, 12 athletes out of top 20 wore METASPEED Series, achieving exceptionally compelling results.

Our share in the New Year University Ekiden race is also recovering. The share, which was 0% at the start of 2021 rose to 25.7% by the New Year of 2025 climbing to the second place. Please look forward to the 2026 New Year University Ekiden as well.

The slide summarizes the collaborative framework between the C-PROJECT and Performance Running category. As explained earlier, C-PROJECT targets on athletes and develops products to enhance their performance with a clear division of roles of Performance category -- the Performance Running category.

The Performance Running category utilizes new insights generated by C-PROJECT, while focusing on delivering Sound Mind, Sound Body to all runners through a premium running experiences.

This is an example of applying technology from C-PROJECT to running shoes. The new material, FF Leap, adopted in the METASPEED RAY is also featured in the recently released MAGIC SPEED 5. Furthermore, the FF TURBO+ technology used in METASPEED SKY TOKYO and METASPEED EDGE TOKYO is also incorporated into models currently on sale, such as the S4+ Yogiri and SUPERBLAST 2. We are making efforts to ensure more people can enjoy a new running experience through those innovative technologies.

So, this slide summarizes the sales growth of each silo that we have explained so far. The top row of the table is ASICS, and the bottom row is the wholesale channel, representing the growth rate of the market calculated from data by Circana. We have achieved growth above the market average in all silos, and we believe that our customers have become more accepting of our products in each silo.

Now let's take a look at our efforts to achieve #1 market share by 2025 and our achievements. This is a key strategy set to achieve #1 market share in 2025. As I explained at the beginning, we have set a focus to win in the Core Running market with a selling price of $90 or more. And among them, we aim to be #1 in each of the major markets of Japan, the United States and Europe. As a key action to become #1, we have strategically promoted continuous product innovation, enhancement -- enhancing customer connections through the consistent marketing measures.

Now, I will walk you through the situation in each market. In Japan, the market share in -- of the so-called running racing shoes in competition such as the Ekiden race has a significant impact on the overall market share acquisition. So, we have first aimed to have the #1 position in this market segment.

In conjunction with the launch of the METASPEED TOKYO SERIES, we have strengthened our approach to our target customer segment. by hosting our own events such as TOKYO SPEED RACE and METATIME TRIAL.

We launched products and disseminated marketing stories in line with World Athletics Championships Tokyo 2025 and Tokyo Marathon. These activities paid off. And at the Tokyo Marathon 2025, we were able to win the #1 spot with a 40% share.

Next is the United States. In the United States, the presence of running specialty stores as a culture is very significant and winning here will contribute to the development of the running community, and it is also important considering the ripple effect of the entire market. In order to win in this market, we have intensified our efforts to get across the strength of our products to customers by holding a joint demonstration events with running specialty stores. And in terms of operations, we have strategically secured inventory for running specialty stores throughout North America.

As a result, as shown in the figure on bottom left, we were able to gain the #1 post in many running specialty stores in the United States. This year, in terms of the overall share of running specialty stores, it increased from the 1st place in 2022 to #2 place in September 2025. This trend is also steadily reflected in the share of shoes born at marathon events and the shoe count share of the LA Marathon, shown at the bottom right, has risen to #2 in 2025.

Next is Europe. We are focusing on enhancing our brand equity across the Core Running market of our products. For example, we are focusing on improving our image as a premium brand by narrowing down on low-tier product sales while maximizing brand exposure through sponsorship of major European milestones such as Paris, Rotterdam and Gothenburg Half.

As a result, in 2025, we achieved the #1 position in the share of target market according to Circana data and the #1 position of the share of shoes won in major marathon events.

Finally, I will look at the focus areas for the growth of Performance Running business. The first is brand positioning at major marathon events in order to aim to be the #1 Performance brand in the Core Running market. We are targeting -- we believe that brand appeal at marathon events will be important.

Here is a summary of the results of sponsored races, and we have been able to gain a high share in each race. In the future, we will expand our market share in major events where we have not yet become #1, including the LA Marathon, and we believe that we can aim to increase our share in major marathon events around the world, including in emerging countries.

This is a summary of the share in the marathon races by finish time. In terms of the share of runners who complete a full marathon in less than 4 hours, we have not yet taken the #1 position. So, we will continue to work to aim for a #1 position here as well. That will be a key.

Now I will go over two key areas for future growth. The first is the mid-to-high price point market. We compete in the $90 or more market, but our main focus was on the products over $160, where it is easy to demonstrate our product strength. However, if you compare the market size of $160 or more in Japan, the U.S. and Europe with that of $90 to $160, you can see that the market size of $90 to $160 is nearly twice as large.

In fact, there are many cases where items that are iconic of our competitors' brands are sold in this particular price zone. And we believe that it is important to strengthen the competitiveness of product groups in this price range such as GT-2000 and Gel-CUMULUS, which are listed here.

The second is the trail running market. The trail running is a popular sport in recent years. Unlike road running on paved roads, runners run on unpaved trails mainly in mountains. We assume that the combined market size of Japan, the U.S. and Europe is about JPY 260 billion, but ASICS only accounts for about 4%. And we believe that it is still an area that can be expanded while promoting our technology.

Next, I would like to talk about emerging markets. We define emerging markets as Greater China, Southeast and South Asia and South America and India. These regions are expected to continue to experience population growth and rapid GDP per capita growth. And we believe that the resulting increase in health and exercise awareness will create an environment that makes it easy here to enjoy running. However, in these areas, the awareness of ASICS is not high as shown in the table on the bottom left.

In terms of the sales breakdown of 2024 by region, which is shown at the bottom center, the emerging markets percentage is 26%. So, by expanding the sponsored races and the partner mono-brand store and by expanding channel, we can enhance our presence in each country and accelerate the growth.

In regions such as India and Brazil, we also consider it important to utilize local production. Specifically, it is important to shorten the lead time to sales while appropriately complying with region-specific laws and regulations. We will work closely with local OEM factories to improve shoemaking technology and ensure quality and design to global standards so that we can sell locally produced products without compromising our brand value.

Lastly, on Greater China. Although we have achieved an average annual growth of more than 30% from 2020 to 2024, as shown in the bottom left of the slide, the number of running events and participants in running events in China is actually increasing year-by-year. We believe that it will continue to be a growth market considering the total population and the excitement around the running market.

As was shown in the slide earlier, within the Greater China, the ASICS recognition or awareness rate is rather low. So through the running of -- running station and huge flagship stores, we aim to be the #1 in the Greater China region as well.

This is the last of the slides that I will go over. In order to become a #1 market, we have been working on medium to -- medium-term business management plan to become the #1 premium brand. All stakeholders work together to achieve the #1 market share by 2025, and we achieved the #1 market share in the target market in Japan, the U.S. and Europe combined. In addition, we were able to achieve #1 share in several major marathon races, mainly in Japan and events (sic) [ Europe ].

Regarding the future, we will continue to aim to achieve #1 market share in major marathon races. As I mentioned earlier, as key new markets, there's the mid- to high-price market and the trail running market and the emerging markets, including the Greater China area.

We believe that the overall running shoe market will continue to grow in the future. So, we will thoroughly implement uncompromising product development through ASICS DESIGN PHILOSOPHY with continuous product innovation, we will execute consistent marketing and channel strategies.

This concludes my explanation of the Performance Running Footwear category. Thank you for your attention.

[Interpreted] This is Tominaga, the President and COO. Finally, I would like to explain the running ecosystem that supports runners at various touch-points, starting with the race.

ASICS is expanding its contact points with runners through the use of running services and digital platforms. In 2029 or -- since 2019, we have been promoting M&A race registration companies globally, starting with the acquisition of Race Roster, which boast the #3 market share in the race registration business in Canada and the United States.

In 2021, we acquired Register Now, which has the #1 market share in Australia and New Zealand. And in the following year, we acquired R-bies in Japan and njuko in Europe. These companies have #1 market share in its own region. Rather than providing ASICS applications to users separately, one-by-one, race registration, training, post-race follow-up and e-commerce sites and bringing customers to stores should all be done collaboratively.

The Sydney Marathon held in August in Australia every year is a best practice for implementing such a running ecosystem. We provide consistent support for runner's journeys, starting with race registration on Race Roster and ending with the day of the event, both digitally and physically.

As a result, the average purchase price of OneASICS members who participated in this year's Sydney Marathon was more than 60% higher than that of OneASICS member in the region.

And this month, we decided to acquire two new race registration companies. So, I would like to briefly go over these two companies.

Deporticket is a Spanish company. And the number of employees is rather small, but they have been gaining market gradually. Behind this is the CEO and the other management team's abilities to develop digital human resources and their capabilities. Based on their expertise, we also look forward to innovation in the field of digital solutions.

The other one is THAI RUN. As the name suggests, it is a company located in Thailand that is developing its business mainly in Southeast Asia. The uniqueness of this company is its photo services, that make full use of AI technology. By incorporating these technologies and insights into the ASICS' running ecosystem, we believe we can enhance the comprehensive running experience from race registration to post-race follow-up.

We will continue to acquire race registration companies, which will serve as the starting point of our running ecosystem strategy. We will expand our share in the race registration business and develop a business model on a global scale, such as the one established at the Sydney Marathon.

ASICS has a number of assets that can be deployed globally with the power of digital. For instance, Runkeepers community and training support can help connect people wherever they live and build a momentum for the race.

In addition, ASICS membership program, OneASICS, has expanded to more than -- expanded to many different countries with more than 22 million membership, and they can enjoy various benefits. By combining these digital solutions, we believe that it will be possible to provide cross-border experiences and send customers to each other.

For example, runners living in the U.S. can receive invitations to the Mt. Fuji Marathon race organized by R-bies in Japan through OneASICS services. And OneASICS rewards will support travel and accommodation expenses to participate in the race.

In addition, if the RunConcierge, which uses AI to provide race information, provides runners with information related to the post area or where the races would take place, such as gourmet food and leisure, ASICS will also have an advantage that it can offer to a sponsor as race organizers and with benefit of local governments. With such a unique global digital network, we will further improve the value of the brand experience by providing a running experience unique to ASICS.

This concludes my explanation. Thank you for your attention.

[Interpreted] So that was the answer to the questions. Now the presentation was created in English, but I will speak in Japanese. And later on, Mike will talk about this business and the situation in the U.S.

So, as I just mentioned earlier, the reason why I see further potential for running specialty stores in the U.S. is very much related to this chart. From 2020 to 2024, the sales of running shoes for running purpose has been growing in terms of market size. And in particular, running specialty stores are playing a huge role. So, the overall pie, overall market itself is expanding. And within that, the presence of running specialty stores is enhanced. So there is still further room for growth.

And from 2020 to 2024 over the 4 years, the shipment has grown by 2.5x in terms of shipments from ASICS America to running specialty stores. So, we are engaged in business with running specialty stores by having a very highly detailed way of follow-up. And as I mentioned earlier, running specialty stores provide services to runners in a very detailed manner. I am always impressed when I visit running specialty store and how ASICS can support with products, with marketing initiatives or with running events. That is something we are very much working hard on. And so, we are still in the process of regaining the trust from running specialty stores.

The bottom left is data that I am kind of embarrassed about. In 2018, the running association did a survey and ASICS was considered to be a totally unreliable brand. Actually, that's on the bottom right. And this year, again, in 2025, ASICS is finally considered to be a brand that they can expect more from. So, we are evaluated more highly, but we are still in the process of regaining the trust and there is still huge room where we can potentially get more market shares. So, including that aspect, the running specialty stores in the U.S. we don't have something similar in Japan. And this is the sales method that's very unique in the U.S.

So from Mike, we'd like to hear from him what the secret is. So, it's your turn, Mike.

Thank you, Kodama. Great to be here with everyone. I'm assuming everything you just said about me was good. Yes. Okay. Excellent.

A lot of people have been thanking me for coming here from California today, but I want to thank ASICS and the leadership group for hosting me. It's an honor that they would select me to come out and speak to all of you. So thank you, first and foremost.

I want to start with two important statistics for us. And the first is that since 1983, Road Runner Sports has sold over $1.5 billion worth of ASICS running shoes, over 21 million pairs in our history since 1983. So, ASICS was one of our first partners at Road Runner Sports, and they remain one of our strongest and best partners in the market today. So, truly appreciative for all the business over the years.

I'll start with our humble beginnings. This is the Road Runner Sports garage in 1983, where we were founded. It was founded by my father. And today, our very humble roots, we don't sell any running shoes out of that garage today. But as you'll see from our presentation, we have grown quite a bit. So, as we go on and we talk about the Road Runner Sports history, 1983 founded in a garage, as I mentioned, Road Runner Sports in the beginning only took phone orders, no retail stores.

And 42 years later, Road Runner Sports is still 100% family-owned. We have no outside investors. We have no private equity. If we want to make a change, we can make a change. So that's very important for us to how we operate and how we do business.

Road Runner Sports took its first advertisement out in Runner's World Magazine in 1983. You can see the magazine up there. And then in 1997, Road Runner Sports launched its first website. And today, the website serve millions of customers with over 40 million visitors per year coming to the Road Runner Sports website in America.

In 2001, Road Runner Sports opened its first remote retail store in Seattle, Washington. Today, Road Runner Sports has 52 running stores across the country and 1,200 team members and a very loyal customer following.

Now a little bit about the Road Runner Sports philosophy. Our philosophy remains the same today as it was back in 1983, and that is very simply to help and inspire everyone to get moving, stay active, and live healthy. And I love this picture that we have of the people running and having fun. That's what we're all about.

We want everyone to move their body through the sport of running, walking or fitness, and we are here to support them on their fitness and health journey. We also believe in giving back and providing a program called Athletes Helping Athletes. We provide kids who are unable to walk or run with custom hand cycles, and we've donated over $2 million to this cause over the years.

Now a little bit about the Road Runner Sports experience when you come into one of our stores. With 52 locations across the United States and over $250 million in revenue, we provide an extremely personalized and customized fitting process that is only done by Road Runner Sports.

In some instances, it can take up to an hour to get fit in the right pair of shoes when you come into our store. We scan your feet to determine your proper shoe size, all with technology, by the way. We don't use any Brannock devices. We then mold custom insoles that are perfectly matched to your arch needs, and then we offer a variety of apparel, socks and recovery needs to complete your purchase.

And then finally, I share here, ASICS remains our #1 partner, and Road Runner Sports has sold more ASICS' shoes than any other brand in America by a very wide margin.

The final piece about Road Runner Sports is all about the team, the team, the team and our amazing customers and of course, our ASICS partnership. And you can see Kodama there with our team in one of our stores. He's in our stores a lot. He's with our team a lot. But the Road Runner Sports team is second to none. And for us, we believe we have the best fit experts in America. That's what we call them, fit experts. They're actually trained to fit you in the proper running shoes, apparel and fitness gear.

We have extensive training, technology, art supports and general running, walking, and pain relief knowledge. That's what we train them on. We also partner extensively with ASICS to ensure we are properly fitting every ASICS' customer in the right shoe with the proper fit. And what we're able to do in the stores, the way that we fit, the way that we ask questions, the way that we analyze is very helpful for us and complementary to our website business.

And we have a lot of fun as well. We have over 1,300 partnerships across the country with gyms, hospitals, track teams, marathons, all that partner with Road Runner Sports. We call this our Grassroots division. So we're out in the community. We're building that support.

And as you heard earlier today, the running, walking and fitness aspect in America is growing at a rapid pace. There are more run clubs. There's higher race participation, and there's more races right now happening in America than ever before.

The final piece I'll share is, everyone is concerned about their health. Everyone is concerned about their well-being. And our philosophy to help and inspire every single individual to get moving, stay active and live healthy is good in 2025, and we believe it will be good in 2055 and beyond.

So, I'll conclude there and answer any questions you may have. Thank you.

[Interpreted] To be Senior Managing Director of China Division, so I will talk about -- I would like to talk a little bit. So today, thank you once again for your participation in Investment Day. We started this Investment Day in 2019. So this is the 13th Investment Day.

Looking at other companies, they would call it as IR Day or Investor Day. So the name Investment Day is quite a few. What I did back in 2019, I made a mistake in calling this Investment Day, and that is continuing to this day.

In February of 2019, I presented the earnings with Hirota-san, and that was JPY 10.5 billion was the profit -- operating profit. And the net profit -- actually, we made a net loss, but this year, operating profit is JPY 140 billion. ASICS has grown hugely. So, at the moment, share price is weakening, but the market cap is above JPY 3 trillion. So, this is thanks to all of your support.

But I'd like to show my appreciation is to the sell-side analysts. There are only four sell-side analysts, but now 40 -- more than 40 people are here and now the number of companies covering us is 15 companies. And many of those that asked questions gave us a lot of opportunities to speak to many investors, and we were able to engage in many investors. So, I'm very much grateful for that, and that has contributed to my own growth.

Sorry to, sort of, boast about myself. Today, we -- or this year, we were given IR Grand Prix, and we were given this award for 3 years in a row. My soccer team could not be a champion for 3 years, but ASICS was able to have this award for 3 years in a row. So, I'd like to thank everyone very much.

And Hirota and Tominaga, and we, together with the leadership team, we will continue to do our best in terms of IR activities.

Lastly, I will be -- I'd like to be very brief with this slide. It was already mentioned earlier that China is yet to grow. And as Michael mentioned, we want to still grow Performance Running business.

And so, in terms of region, Greater China is certainly a growth region. I'd like to do three things specifically. One is to grow running business even more. I mentioned earlier, Tianjin Marathon ASICS market share is only 5%. So that means there's only opportunities out there.

The running -- there are quite a lot of running races in the Greater China as well as the rest of the world. So, we will come up with a product strategy and wholesale strategy so that we can grow the business in this region.

Second, from the end of 2023 or so, I started to be in charge of supply chain as well. As CFO over the past 2 years, I have been working on this. I have visited various places as well, but with leadership, I'd like to become a -- I'd like to make sure that ASICS will become a model case among operating companies.

Actually, the inventory situation in China is the worst among ASICS. So, if there is an improvement, then you can think of me making an effort.

Lastly, I myself need to enhance my understanding of Greater China region. So, we will strengthen the business foundation, but I'd like to go to different places, go to the directly owned stores and visiting various wholesale accounts. I'd like to expand the business further.

If you come to Shanghai, please do contact me, so that we can see each other. And so, I hope to see you at some point next year. So, thank you very much since 2018, 2019 with earnings call and there with Investment Day. Thank you very much for your support all these years.

[Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]